The Black Hands of Death
by FailKitten13
Summary: It is said that they wait until the darkest hours of the night to strike, and the last thing you'll ever see is the black hands of Death Himself descending upon you. (More of an original story set in the One Piece world starring my pirate crew, the Black Hand Pirates. Cameos from canon characters included at certain points.)
1. Prologue

"What do you propose we do, Captain?"  
It was Moscow's first spoken words since the crew of three had been thrown in that cell. The rest of the rather impressively sized crew had been murdered, and their ship - The Suffering - utterly destroyed. All that remained to prove the existence of the Black Hand Pirates was their captain, first mate, cabingirl, and the fear they had struck into the hearts of so many.  
Said captain - known by many as Black Hand Barcelona, but by her crew as Captain Barcelona Signet - turned to her first mate, a twinkle in her green eyes that told him she had a plan.  
"Don't you worry, Moscow," she replied, her words seasoned with a slight Spanish accent. "We won't have to sit in this cell much longer. In fact, we'll be out of here by the time they bring us our next meal."  
"We will?" Seoul, the cabingirl, piped up.  
Seoul wasn't quite used to the whole pirating thing or coming up with plans, being only thirteen years old, so she couldn't see how they were going to get out of this dreadful situation so soon.  
"Why, certainly, my dearest Seoul. All Mossy has to do is touch the guard," the flamboyant woman explained with pride, ruffling Seoul's hair.  
Moscow raised an eyebrow.  
"Touch the guard?" he repeated.  
Barcelona looked her first mate over.  
"You know what I mean."  
Moscow's look of vague confusion was slowly replaced with a smirk.  
"Yes ma'am."  
As if on queue, footsteps sounded down the hall. Many people in this area of the Grand Line knew about Dead Man Moscow's powers[as a matter of fact, Barcelona wouldn't be surprised if the whole world knew, considering how long the older man had been at it], and it was smart of this crew to send in two men as opposed to the usual one to provide the Blackhand Pirates with their meals.  
However, it wasn't good enough.  
Just as soon as one guard reached out to set the trays down, Moscow had both wrists in his hands. The trays of food clattered to the ground as the prison guard struggled to free himself from the grip of death. Within minutes, the guard's movements had stopped, and Moscow's body fell limply to the floor.  
To an outsider, it would appear that Moscow had tired himself out all too soon, as evidenced by his laboured breathing and inability to move. However, this was not the case, and it took the second guard too long to figure this out.  
Moscow, in possession of the first guard's body, ripped his pistol from his holster and shot the second one. Within seconds, he had the cell unlocked. Barcelona strutted out of it, flinging her arms out to the sides as if to say, 'Ta-da!'  
"No time to celebrate yet, Captain," Moscow admonished as he knelt next to his own body and held his hand to his own face.  
"You're right," Barcelona agreed as she snatched the gun off of the second guard and frowned. "I'll have to learn to aim a gun first."  
"Let me do the shooting," Moscow told her, back in his own body.  
As the first guard became aware of what had happened to him, he began screaming in pain, curling himself into a ball.  
Seoul seemed uncomfortable, her right hand over her mouth as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other repeatedly. Barcelona grabbed the dark girl's left hand and pulled her over to the stairs.  
"I hope you know we won't be much help on this one until I can find my sword," she reminded her first mate.  
"Yes, Captain. I'm aware of that," he replied in a tired-sounding voice as he scouted ahead.  
As soon as the first gunshot sounded above deck, Barcelona took Seoul up the stairs with her.  
The captain, knowing Seoul would be able to dodge any stray bullets well enough on her own, left her cabingirl to her own devices as she went in search of her missing sword.


	2. Chapter 1

It was dawn before that battle was over, and the sun had just cleared the horizon when the crew of three had found land whilst moseying along in their stolen long boat.  
"It seems we'll be starting over," Moscow remarked as he docked.  
"Where are we?" Barcelona asked with a small frown. "I don't recall hearing of this island."  
Seoul slipped behind Moscow. Evidently, she'd heard of the place.  
"If I'm right...we're in Mock Town," the thirteen-year-old piped up.  
Barcelona raised an eyebrow at her cabingirl.  
"'Mock Town'? What in the world is that?"  
"It's on an island called Jaya, and they aren't too friendly here."  
As if to prove Seoul's point, they could hear shouting and cruel laughter in the distance.  
Barcelona waved the sounds of a barfight off and sighed.  
"I'm sick of fighting; I just want to take a rest. Is that so hard?"  
"I can check out the island for you, if you wish."  
"No way, Moscow. We're all going together. Well, except for that bar..."  
A window shattered in said bar as the captain pointed it out.  
"...Just steer clear of any fights," she yawned. "I'm not in the mood to deal with one."  
"Not hard to do."  
No one seemed up for a friendly conversation, however, and Barcelona had collapsed in the street by noon.  
"We're stuck here forever," she groaned.  
"How's that?"  
That was an unfamiliar voice.  
It was also, notably, a sexy one, so Barcelona had to sit up and find the source.  
Before her stood a woman a little darker than she was with perfectly straight, shoulder-length black hair and stunning blue eyes. Barcelona gaped for long enough that Moscow had to step in and do the talking for her.  
"We were attacked, and both our ship and the rest of our crew was destroyed. We can't seem to find any available ships or even logue poses in this godforsaken place, so of course we're wondering if we'll grow old and die here."  
Leave it to Moscow to be patient and tactful.  
The woman shrugged, and Barcelona began to wonder if she'd seen her before.  
"Perhaps I could help, but that's not really my decision to make. You can follow me back to my ship and wait for my captain to arrive if you wish."  
"Gladly!" Barcelona finally spoke up before Moscow could reply for her.  
Barcelona wasn't certain how long the trip back to the other woman's ship was, but she did recall Seoul complaining about her feet hurting and Moscow consequently being ordered to take Seoul the rest of the way piggy back. Once they finally did arrive, however, the three of them were tired and hungry. Lucky for them the captain had made it back before this woman did, and after he took care of his first order of business, he turned his attention to them.  
Barcelona couldn't help but wonder why a child was commandeering a pirate ship. Then again, she had to take into account that she was eleven years younger than her first mate.  
"So, Robin?" he started out, staring what was left of the Blackhand Pirates down with a strange sort of blankness in his expression.  
"Yes, Captain?"  
"Who are these guys you brought back with you?"  
"Just a few more unfortunate pirates," the woman, Robin, responded nonchalantly. "They were attacked and their ship and crew was destroyed."  
"So, what, they want a free ride?"  
Straw Hat Luffy, Barcelona realised, that was Straw Hat Luffy.  
"I suppose. They said without some sort of passage out of here they'd be stuck on the island forever. It's your call."  
She hoped they'd let her on board based solely on the fact they were tougher than her. Luffy stared her down for a long time before speaking up again.  
"Which one of you is the captain?"  
Barcelona raised her hand a little and waved at him, a grin spreading across her makeup-smeared face.  
She took note of a man in her peripheral vision eyeing her suspiciously as he wrung out his shirt[he'd jumped in the water to save a crewmate earlier].  
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy."  
She took note of the D, as well as the fact he held himself quite well in spite of his immature appearance. Perhaps there was more to the scene before her than a child ordering a bunch of adults around after all.  
"I'm Barcelona Signet," Barcelona responded, glancing around the crew as she went on to announce, "You all may know me as Blackhand Barcelona."  
Moscow put a hand on her arm, reminding her they weren't out to intimidate these people.  
There was another long pause as Luffy thought over what he should do next.  
"Come aboard," he finally decided. "We can talk about what to do next up here."  
Barcelona, Moscow, and Seoul helped each other up on the deck.  
Barcelona took note of a long-nose man cowering in fear behind the crow's nest.  
"Who are the rest?" piped up the suspicious man from earlier.  
"I'm Seoul Chambers."  
"Moscow Tangent."  
"Luffy, you aren't really thinking of letting these guys come with us?" the long-nosed man lamented from his hiding spot. "They could be dangerous!"  
Barcelona almost told him they were dangerous, but managed to remember to control herself.  
Luffy shrugged at him.  
"They probably just want to get to the next island. That's not so bad."  
"Yes, yes, we won't be on board very long," Barcelona confirmed quickly. "We just need passage to the next island that can provide a ship and a logue pose. Also..."  
She glanced down at Seoul and nudged her forward.  
"...I need to feed the little one here. We haven't eaten in two days."  
Barcelona found herself mourning the food they'd abandoned in that cell.  
"Sure," Luffy replied easily. "You guys can eat. Sanji's making dinner."  
Barcelona smiled gratefully at the younger man[boy?]and felt, deep inside, more than a little ashamed to be accepting help from strangers. She pushed her first mate and cabingirl toward the galley, but stayed behind herself to discuss things with Luffy.  
"So, what happened to you?" she asked him, referring to the bandages all over him.  
"Nothing important. Hey, listen, we're heading up to Skypeia next. Are you sure you want to go through there before you find a ship and a logue pose?"  
Skypeia? Barcelona had only heard stories of it. She never was sure how real it was, but hoped to confirm its existance or nonexistance herself one day. So, of course she grinned widely at him.  
"Of course I do. When will I ever get a chance like that again?"  
Luffy grinned right back.  
"Good, because we're about to go find out how to get there."  
"Very good. Now, I guess I should tell you something. Me and Seoul? We won't give you any trouble. I am very grateful to you for letting us ride with you a while, and Seoul's just a little girl. She's more interested in dancing, really, than fighting with anyone. But...Moscow? He's...protective. He will think the stupidest things are threats. As much as I love having him around, he's an asshole and I'd understand if you needed to lock him away anywhere until we land for good."  
"We'll deal with it if it happens," he replied with a shrug as he brought himself to his feet. "Are we all ready?"  
"Almost," an unfamiliar voice called back. "I just made dinner, aren't you hungry?"  
That must have been Sanji.  
"Well, duh!" Luffy laughed, stretching his arms out so that he could pull himself effortlessly to the galley.  
Barcelona stood and absentmindedly dusted herself off. She'd barely made it into the galley when she observed one of Sanji's mood swings.  
Basically, he went from griping about having to portion food for new people to swooning and fawning over her within seconds.  
Barcelona gave him a very flat and pointed look that she hoped told him to stop.  
It didn't.  
So, she ignored him and sat at the table. She was getting a free ride and a few free meals out of this, so she could put up with some flirting from one strange man.  
It would be easy sailing from here on out.


End file.
